Misery is what happiness rests upon. Happiness is what misery lurks beneath.
Interpretation
Happiness and misery are interconnected, with one giving context to the other.
This quote by Laozi highlights the duality of human emotions, suggesting that happiness cannot be fully appreciated without the experience of misery. It implies that the presence of suffering and challenges enriches our understanding of joy, indicating that these two states are inextricably linked and define each other.
In practice
In a speech about overcoming adversity, one could emphasize how difficult times can lead to deeper appreciation for joyful moments.
If you understand others you are smart._x000D_ If you understand yourself you are illuminated._x000D_ If you overcome others you are powerful._x000D_ If you overcome yourself you have strength._x000D_ If you know how to be satisfied you are rich._x000D_ If you can act with vigor, you have a will._x000D_ If you don't lose your objectives you can be long-lasting._x000D_ If you die without loss, you are eternal.
When nothing is done, nothing is left undone.
A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.
Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is enlightenment.
In the world there is nothing more submissive and weak than water. Yet for attacking that which is hard and strong nothing can surpass it.
Rule your mind with serenity rather than with force and manipulation.
Criminals, people who commit crimes, usually society rejects these people. They are also part of our society. Give them some form of punishment to say they were wrong, but show them they are part of society and can change. Show them compassion.
No one has ever laughed at a pun who did not see in the one word a twofold meaning. To materialists this world is opaque like a curtain; nothing can be seen through it. A mountain is just a mountain, a sunset just a sunset; but to poets, artists, and saints, the world is transparent like a window pane - it tells of something beyond....a mountain tells of the Power of God, the sunset of His Beauty, and the snowflake of His Purity.
It would be a bitter cosmic joke if we destroy ourselves due to atrophy of the imagination.
Openness isn't the end. It's the beginning.
Since God often sends us inspirations by means of His angels, we should frequently return our aspirations to him by means of the same messengers.
Let's develop theories, patiently and honestly thinking them out, in order to promptly act against them β acting and justifying our actions with new theories that condemn them. Let's cut a path in life and then go immediately against that path. Let's adopt all the poses and gestures of something we aren't and don't even wish to be, and don't even wish to taken for being.
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